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Posts tagged ‘lemon’

Lemon Macarons

I often take the kids to Kmart so they can have a look at the toys and I can have a look at the books – they often have some of the best cookbooks at the best prices.  Last week, while browsing there, I found a book called “Macaroons“, with 30 macaron recipes, for only $9. Read more

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

My family and I have relatively recently moved back to Sydney, Australia from Indiana, USA.  There were many reasons why we were looking forward to moving back.  And one giant reason why we were not looking forward to moving back – 3 flights with 3 young children, including a 3-month-old baby!  We went alright though, as it turned out that the baby was actually the easiest to travel with.  He spent most of his time in a Peanut Shell sling, either nursing or asleep.  The real trouble was with our 4-year-old and 2-year-old, who were so full of energy, yet were so incredibly tired.  Why do kids do that – the more tired they are, the more wild they become?  After  running around the seats at the gate in San Francisco’s airport during our 5-hour layover, they finally fell asleep in those seats – my daughter’s face was buried under her arms, and my son fell asleep bent over the seat, with his feet still standing on the floor.  It was a nightmare, the whole entire trip, but it still went better than what I thought it would have.

We just had to keep looking on the bright side – our plane finally touching down in Sydney.

We’ve been back for about 7 months now and it feels like we never even spent those 3 long years in the US.  Even though we did spend all that time there, we didn’t make many friends and we didn’t know our neighbors very well; we didn’t even get out much (but there’s so much more to do here than where we were in Indiana).  Here, we are lucky to have some great neighbors – one of them even grows their own fruit and vegetables, organically, and are kind enough to share their bounty with us, such as butternut pumpkins, persimmons, plums, lemons and limes.  I’ve made pumpkin bread, persimmon bread, a lime tart, lemon melting moments and lemon butter with some of these fruits.  It’s great to bake with fresh food that I know is free from chemicals.

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Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes

I was this close to entering July’s Iron Cupcake: Earth herb challenge, but couldn’t find the herbs I wanted – I wanted them fresh.  But I decided to go ahead and try the cupcake I wanted to make, but without the herbs, just for fun.  It ended up being one of my favorite cupcakes that I’ve made thus far.

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And it certainly is pretty!  It’s a devil’s food cupcake, frosted with lemon cream cheese frosting and decorated with a homemade candied lemon peel.

The cupcake recipe I chose is from Martha Stewart.  It’s the second time I’ve used this particular recipe and I decided that I really like it enough to be my current favorite chocolate cupcake recipe.  It uses sour cream in the batter, which gives the batter a beautiful-looking creamy texture.  The cake itself bakes up soft and moist, but still firm.

I’ve never eaten lemon cream cheese frosting, and I am admittedly not a fan at all of cream cheese.  But if it’s sweetened enough I think it tastes really nice as a frosting.  I found the recipe at allrecipes.com.  I ended up not having to use all of the confectioners’ sugar; I believe I only used 4 cups, rather than the full 5 cups.  It is really creamy and lemony; if I ever need a lemon frosting recipe again, I’ll definitely be choosing this one.

What really put the lemon in the cake, though, was the homemade candied lemon peel.  I found the recipe for this from Whole Foods Market.  These turned out extremely lemony and tasted great on the cupcakes.

The main inspiration for these lemon chocolate cupcakes came from a memory of eating a Lindt lemon chocolate bar.  It’s pretty crazy because I cannot find that Lindt lemon chocolate bar anymore, but I’m pretty sure that they did exist and that I did eat one!

Homemade Lemonade

Homemade lemonade is my all-time favorite summer drink.  When I made my favorite recipe and posted a photo of it on Flickr a few years ago, it quickly became one of my most popular photographs.  It’s nearing 10,000 views!

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I also made this lemonade for a baking party I hosted a year or so later; everyone loved it.

I can’t remember where I got the recipe from, but I think it’s definitely a winner!

Homemade Lemonade
Makes approximately 7 cups

Ingredients
1 1/3 cups sugar
Zest of 3 lemons
2 cups boiling water
4 cups cold water
1 1/3 cups lemon juice (approximately 6 lemons)
ice cubes

Method
Pour the sugar and the lemon zest into an empty pitcher. Pour the 2 cups boiling water onto the sugar and lemon zest and stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour in the 4 cups cool water, then pour in the lemon juice and stir.

Refrigerate until cold and serve with ice cubes.  I usually strain out the lemon zest before serving.

Enjoy!